Python Foundations for Network Engineers

Question 1

list characteristics of Python 2.x

Answer 1

• No longer developed, but supported by community
• Better library support
• Default on Linux and Mac
• Supported by Cisco NX-OS

Question 2

list characteristics of Python 3.x

Answer 2

• Under active development
• Easier to learn (note: design goal)
• Fixed major issues in 2.x
• Not backwards compatible

Question 3

why shebang is needed

Answer 3

!/usr/bin/env python is needed in Linux and Mac for the script to execute on a correct program path

Question 4

returns documentation about the object

Answer 4

.help()

Question 5

returns the attributes and methods the object or module has

Answer 5

.dir()

Question 6

returns the type of the object

Answer 6

.type()

Question 7

what the python style guide is called

Answer 7

PEP8

Question 8

what pythonic means

Answer 8

idiomatic python, which is concerced about readability and uniformity

Question 9

what means strings are immutable

Answer 9

individual characters cannot be modified after the string has been created

Question 10

how to print an empty line in Python

Answer 10

“\n”

Question 11

what is concatenation

Answer 11

adding multiple strings together

Question 12

list built-in methods for strings

Answer 12

• .upper() and .lower()
• .replace()
• .startswith()
• .format()
• .split()

Question 13

how to refer to the last element in a list

Answer 13

sample_list[-1]

Question 14

what are the common built-in methods for lists

Answer 14

.append()
.pop()
.insert()
.count()
.extend()
.sort()

Question 15

what is the item of a dictionary called

Answer 15

key-value pair

Question 16

what are the common built-in methods for dictionaries

Answer 16

.pop()
.update()
.get()

Question 17

the difference between while and for loops

Answer 17

while loop until a conditional is matched, for loops over a limited range of items such as list items

Question 18

when should you deploy functions

Answer 18

when a block of code is used more than once in a script

Question 19

how to read and open a file for Python script

Answer 19

f = open(“config.txt”, “r”)